Tuesday, 20 January 2015

I had already heard many villagers
talking about a leopard who keeps wandering about in the village during night.
Some said to have spotted 2 leopards (probably a couple) next to the primary
school where as someone said that the leopard halted whole night in his
backyard and finished off a new born calf. Few school girls saw him resting
next to the road at the distance and could not dare to go any further. Some told
to have heard a roaring at Night. All the stories seemed to me nothing but an
entertainment stock and I relished each and every lot of it being quite
heedless of an existence of the leopard.

I was expecting my Guests at Maachli
in the midnight. All the staff members finished the routine activities and went
home. I grabbed 3 torches, one with a strong focus for me and the other two for
the guests.I walked to the road and positioned myself at the point where I can wave
my hand at the vehicle of the guest. The environment was enchanting and the
glimmering starlit sky made it all the more glorious. I tried to identify some
typical stuff like Milky Way, pole star, Saptarshi but failed miserably.

After some time, I saw one vehicle
coming towards me. It was definitely not the one of the guest as it was coming
from the opposite side. The vehicle slowed down and stopped when it was just 50
meters away from me. There was a catlike creature which suddenly drew my
attention and was slowly moving across the road. I stood looking at it
admiringly as it was marching with a great elegance. I was so much lost in the
vision that I could hardly make out what it is. A driver of the vehicle set the
focus of a light on high beam and I could clearly see the picture and caught a
sight of this strikingly handsome animal. It was definitely a catlike creature
but much bigger than that and Yes!!! It was a leopard.

A focus of a light caused a big discomfort to
the leopard and it was driven away for a while. I saw him walking towards me.
His wagging tail and his terrible eyes gleaming through the dark were visible
against the light of the vehicle. As he drew closer I started stepping back. I
was hurriedly looking for the stick but I did not get one. I cursed myself not
to have listened to my grandfather who thousand times cautioned me to carry a
stick in hand. Old villagers say that such wild animals are less afraid of
human beings than they are of stick.

I was aware of the fact that human
beings generally are not a prey of leopards (I hoped that this one belonged to
that general category) and not even single person has been harmed by a leopard
not only from my childhood but also from my grandfathers. This gave me an
adequate courage to stand steady in front of this gracious and one of the most
aggressive and strongest animals from the wild. Both of us equally horrified,
surprised and stunned had an eye contact. He looked away. It was sure that he
wanted to distance himself from me. Then he managed to disappear in the bushes.

Now the road was clear. A vehicle
came close to me. A driver gave me a strange stare and instructed me to always
have stick in hand while alone on the road in the night. Later I grabbed a
strong stick and patiently waited for the guests.

Next day I shared the same incidence
with one of the guests who was very adventurous officer from the police force.
He told me how unlucky he was despite going for a tiger safari 15 times in the
tiger reserve and not to have spotted one even once.

I would like to thank the
leopard(from the distance of kilometers) for the marvelous sight and the driver of a vehicle for arriving
there at the right time.